MicroRNA Profiling in West Nile Virus Carrying Mosquito, Culex tarsalis

Abstract

West Nile virus (WNV), is a serious mosquito‐borne zoonotic disease. There is currently no vaccine or treatment. The prevalence of WNV is particularly high in South Dakota with the primary species of carrier being Culex tarsalis. MiRNAs are a class of non‐coding RNAs that modulate a wide range of cellular processes (Chugh PE, Damania 2014). In particular, miRNAs have been shown to actively participate in an antiviral defense mechanism in mosquitoes, however, they appear to differ per virus‐vector combination (Göertz GP et al., 2019). Research surrounding the production of miRNAs in response to viral infections has discovered >70 different miRNAs depending upon genus/species of mosquito vectors are produced (Göertz GP et al., 2019). A critical question then becomes “why do some mosquito species produce certain miRNAs in response to WNV infection while other species do not?”. In order to begin understanding this phenomenon, it is important to examine what specific miRNAs are produced in vivo following WNV infection. The following research describes the utilization of total RNA isolated from Cx. tarsalis (+/‐ WNV determined via envelope/probe‐specific qRT‐PCR). Viral load/mosquito pool was determined following TaqMan™ miRNA profiling. Amplified miRNA products were arrayed into libraries, sequenced, and analyzed through NCBI analysis tools (BLAST™, BowTie2™). Results presented detected different viral infections (viral load within pools of Cx. tarsalis) corresponding to specific miRNAs. This knowledge could be key to understanding why certain species of mosquitoes transmit WNV compared to others and hopefully aid health care procedures surrounding WNV infections in both animals and humans.